Adopted 9 month old Bulloxer need some guidance

Question
Hello,
We have a 7 year old male boxer (Frog) who is not fixed and have had him since a puppy.  Absolutely beyond wonderful dog! We have recently (within the last week) adopted a 9 month 3/4 Boxer 1/4 American Bulldog teenager (Gracie).  She is spayed.  She is very sweet natured, but needs a little help.  
The two are getting along as well as can be expected for this first week.  However, Gracie has had NO training and/or discipline from the previous owner. I have been working with her on walking with a leash by doing the stop and start method which is improving.  
Here is where I draw a blank: CHEWING: She chews everything.  She has numerous chew toys, we walk her on a treadmill and then take her for a walk twice a day, play in the afternoons everything I can think of to burn up some energy. She is crated when we leave, but I am lucky to stay home with my little ones, so she spends very little time in there during the day and does great at night.  
JUMPING UP: She will jump on anyone.  Not my boys (2 and 4)but anyone else is fair game in her mind. She does sit, but hasn't manage to follow thru with the stay.
BARKING: She barks at Frog (our older boxer) She wants to play and he ignores her. How do I get her to stop?
NIPPING: This is a new one. Since I have started correcting her (I use the shh - Cesar Milan with the hand jab)she turns around and nips at me.  Never biting, but I don't want it to get to that point.  
I understand that is has only been a week, but I want to let her know her place in our family. My husband seems to think this is all puppy stuff and let it run its course. I am more of lets improve the situation as much as we can. We are trying to get her into an obedience class, but the class is full until June. If you can offer any suggestions to get us through the month I would greatly appreciate it.

Answer
Hi Amber,

Most of this is puppy stuff,  but she does need guidance to learn what is appropriate for your household and what is not; she won't just grow out of the puppy stuff.  In brief, here are some suggestions, and I'll post some links at the end to other sites with more suggestions.

Chewing: This is mostly a matter of supervision and redirection.  You need to watch her constantly; if you can't, you can crate her, gate her in a safe area, or keep her on leash attached to your body so that she can't sneak off.  When she is chewing on something inappropriate, gently take it away (you can say "no chew" or "stop" or "ack" if you want, as an interrupter) and replace with something appropriate, then praise heavily for chewing on the right thing.  Randomly as she's chewing on an approved chew toy, praise and reward her (treats tend to work best for most dogs, but pets, play, whatever is reinforcing to her will work, too).  

Jumping Up: This is a common Boxer problem; you're on the right track with teaching her to sit.  For this you often need help from the objects of her attention - ask your guests to ignore her unless she's sitting, and even to turn their back on her if she tries jumping up on them.  They can also have treats to give her when she is sitting.  For some dogs, jumping up is a self-reinforcing behavior, so if ignoring doesn't work you might need to keep her on leash for a while; drop the leash on the floor and step on it so that she can stand normally but can't get her front feet more than an inch or so off the ground.  Have her sit, and then reinforce the sit and even just "four on the floor".  (This should not be done with a choke collar.)  Jackpot (lots of praise and treats) when she stops trying to jump up.

Barking:  This is a difficult one, because barking is very self-reinforcing for most dogs.  Frog is using one method - ignoring her in an attempt to extinguish the behavior - but this doesn't always work for barking and if she gets rewarded once, it will tend to strengthen the behavior rather than diminish it.  The best approach is to remove her from the situation whenever she starts barking; just a short time-out in her crate or a room by herself.  You need to be very consistent with this; she needs to learn that every time she barks at Frog, she will be put in her crate.  (You can also turn it around on her, by adding a little excitement when you put her in the crate - make the crate her "reward" for barking, and then she can decide whether she wants to ask for that particular reward or not.  I'll link an article on this below - "You Won the Prize" method.)

Nipping:  Personally, I'd drop the Cesar Milan thing; it's based on outdated and misconstrued information and as you've seen, doesn't generally work in the way it's purported.  You're "nipping" her, so she's nipping back.  You can certainly work on bite inhibition, because every dog may bite in certain circumstances and those that have learned to inhibit their bite cause far less damage than those that haven't.  Rather than "correcting" her (which in this sense just means teaching her that you're unpredictable and may start jabbing her at any time) interrupt and redirect her - focus on what you want her to do, rather than what you want her not to do.  

Exercise is good but be careful not to overdo it; Boxers and ABs are still growing until about 14-18 months of age, and too much repetitive exercise can damage the growth plates.  The general rule of thumb is five minutes of "forced" exercise (walking on leash, etc.) for each month of age.  She also needs mental stimulation; obedience training will help with that, you can also teach her some games like "find it" (hide treats around the house and have her sniff them out), "hide and seek" (one person holds her while the other person hides, then calls her - lots of treats when she finds them), etc.  The more she has to think about, the less trouble she'll find!

Some links for more information:
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/
http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/
http://www.pawsitivesolutions.net/puppyhood/index.htm
http://www.clickertraining.biz/

You Won the Prize
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/prize.htm

Nipping:
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/168
http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

Good luck!